


Warm Hands

by explorerseel8



Series: when last decade felt like yesterday [4]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Best Friends, Crushes, Fluff, Friendship, M/M, Mutual Pining, Returning Home, Reunions, Short One Shot, Snow, Winter, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-18 16:55:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28995588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/explorerseel8/pseuds/explorerseel8
Summary: It had been a long day, and a long month since Kakashi had been home. It was a little strange to admit, but he was happy to set foot in Konoha again, and even happier to see Obito.(It's then he realizes just how cold his hands are, and just how warm Obito's feel in his.)
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi & Namikaze Minato & Nohara Rin, Hatake Kakashi & Nohara Rin, Hatake Kakashi/Uchiha Obito
Series: when last decade felt like yesterday [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2003947
Comments: 2
Kudos: 87





	Warm Hands

It was snowing.

The gates of Konoha were covered in it, dusted into a pale shadow of the walls he was used to. Kakashi relished the cold, catching snowflakes on the tip of his tongue like a child. It had been a while since he had seen the gates, and even frozen in chilled air and blanketed in white they were comforting. A month was too long to be away from the village, even for a mission. He never thought he would miss the place so much, but now even the sight of smoke rising from chimneys was painfully familiar, the gray spiraling into the clouds above.

"Kakashi!"

The rest of the team dispersed as soon as they entered the gates, hurrying towards loved ones and best friends and mentors and students, but Kakashi stood still and sighed as Rin barreled through the crowd, pushing people aside to fling her arms around him. "Hello, Rin," Kakashi said, patting her back as she wrestled a hug onto him, patting his hair from a wild mess into something more tameable.

"You're an insensitive bastard!" she spat (which sounded strange coming from a twelve-year-old's mouth), then promptly smacked him in the jaw. "Never go missing like that again!"

"I didn't go missing," Kakashi said, rubbing the area she had hit. He scowled. "I went on an assigned mission. All of you knew where I was."

"I think she meant the part where your team got captured by rogue ninja and didn't send any messages for weeks," Minato replied, walking up behind Rin with a smile on his face. He patted the top of Kakashi's head in a fatherly sort of way, brushing frost off of it. "But I'm glad all of you made it back safely. Everyone has been worried, especially Obito."

_Obito_. Kakashi's heart leapt at the name. He hadn't seen his best friend in what felt like forever, and his backpack was weighed down with dirty clothes and the dozens of letters Obito had sent him. "Where is he?" he asked, glancing from Minato to Rin's still-indignant face, puffed up angrily.

Rin clapped his shoulder. "He's sulking," she said with what might have been amusement in her voice. "He was so excited that you were coming home after a month but I think he's shy."

"Shy," Kakashi echoed slowly, looking up at Minato, who simply shrugged, busy emptying his winter jacket's hood of snow. "Where is he?"

"Down the street in that alley," Rin snickered, jerking a thumb over her shoulder. "Right by the ramen stand."

"Of course," Kakashi sighed. He gave Rin another quick hug and let Minato pat his head a second time. "I'll go see him now, if it's okay, unless you guys want to talk..."

"We all know he's your favorite, go hang out with him," Rin said, prodding his arm. "I have to go training with Minato-sensei now, anyways. We're learning more seals." With that, she and Minato turned and disappeared down a side street, leaving Kakashi and two sets of footprints in broken ice standing underneath the gates, melted snow dripping down the side of his face.

He'd missed Rin, and he'd missed Minato, but he had missed Obito so much more.

He found Obito between the ramen stand and the flower shop, just as Rin had told him. He was perched on a box in the alley, staring at the narrow strip of sky between stone walls when Kakashi found him. There was a snowflake on his nose, halfway melted. In his hands was something black, and after a few moments, Kakashi realized it was a scarf, slightly clumsily-knitted, clearly homemade. There was a moment of silence, in which Obito's feet scuffed the ground and Kakashi's breath misted in the cold air in front of his face, until he managed to open his mouth and whisper a "Hey" that broke the silence like ice cracking, his voice catching in his throat.

Obito was on him in an instant, fingers twisting into the back of his jacket so hard it was painful. "You're an insensitive bastard," he hissed, breath hot on Kakashi's ear. The scarf laid discarded on the box, crumpled from Obito's hands pulling it at.

"That's exactly what Rin said," Kakashi managed to choke out, hands grasping Obito's forearms. Obito got the message and loosened his hold enough for Kakashi to gasp out a breath and hug him back, the two of them stumbling together on slippery concrete. "It's good to see you again, Obito."

Obito sighed against Kakashi's shoulder and stepped back, his cheeks slightly red. Kakashi blinked at the snowflakes stuck on his eyelashes. "I missed you," Obito mumbled into the collar of his winter jacket, grabbing Kakashi's bare hands in his gloved ones. "I missed you a lot. I thought you were dead."

"I thought I was dead too." Obito stayed silent, and Kakashi, a little desperately, added, "Everyone made it out alive, though. We're all fine."

Obito surveyed him a moment longer and let go of his hands, turning to grab the black scarf from the box. It was twisted and a little bumpy in places, but it was still warm as Obito reached out and wrapped it around Kakashi's freezing fingers. "I made you gloves, but I left them at home," he said, voice still quiet. "My grandmother knitted this for you, though."

Kakashi lifted it to his face. "Thank you." He pulled his old scarf off—the green fabric was ratty and dull in comparison—and stuffed it into his backpack, wrapping the new one around his neck. Obito's eyes lit up, and Kakashi smiled at him under his mask, pulling it a little higher on his face. "So how have you been?"

Obito's eyebrows furrowed slightly. He opened his mouth, closed it, and opened it again to speak. "I can't believe you can just do that. Come back from a mission after your squad vanishes off the face of the earth and come back here and ask how _I_ was."

Kakashi shrugged. "I don't know what else to say."

The silence went on for a little while longer. Kakashi's ears burned from cold, and he pulled the scarf higher on his face in an attempt to warm them. The cloth was warm and very, very soft. It felt like the sun had inched halfway across Obito's face when he finally replied. "I'm alright. I was sad you were gone."

Kakashi met Obito's eyes, one of them shadowed by the bridge of his nose, the other gleaming in bright winter sunlight. "I'm sorry," he managed to get out.

Obito jerked his head in a hasty nod, clearly embarrassed. "It's okay."

Kakashi watched, almost fascinated, at the blush rising to Obito's face, spreading to the tips of his ears. It almost looked like it could have been from cold, except for the fact that he was worrying at his bottom lip with his teeth, studying the wall somewhere to Kakashi's left. A snowflake drifted down and landed on the top of his head.

"Let me hug you again."

"Okay."

Obito stepped forward and brought his arms around Kakashi, much gentler than the first time, and Kakashi breathed him in, warm in the scarf, warm in Obito's hold, even with the snow biting his exposed skin fiercely enough to sting, the air so cold it numbed his lungs every time he took a breath.

It was good to be home.


End file.
